For example, in a photolithography process in manufacture of a semiconductor device, resist coating treatment for forming a resist film by applying a resist solution on, for example, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a “wafer”), exposure processing for exposing the resist film to a predetermined pattern, developing treatment for developing the exposed resist film and so on are sequentially performed, whereby a predetermined resist pattern is formed on the wafer.
The wafer for which a series of photolithography process has been performed is subjected to a so-called macro defect inspection by an inspection apparatus to inspect whether or not a predetermined resist film is formed on the front surface of the wafer, or whether or not appropriate exposure processing has been performed, and whether or not there is a scratch or adherence of foreign substance.
Such macro defect inspection is performed such that while a mounting table mounting the wafer thereon is moved, illumination is applied to the wafer on the mounting table and an image of the wafer is captured by an imaging device, such as a CCD line sensor, and the image is subjected to image processing for judgment of presence or absence of a defect (Patent Document 1).
When judging the presence or absence of a defect, a method called a learning-type classification has been conventionally used to classify defects. In the learning-type classification, defect images are collected in advance as teaching images and learned, whereby defects can be optimally classified.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-240519